College Students and Homelessness
The State of Illinois in 2022 enacted Illinois’s Public Act 102-0083 the Higher Education Housing and Opportunities Act. This act requires all colleges and universities in Illinois to have a HOUSE Liaison (Housing and Opportunities that are Useful for Students’ Excellence). The liaison provides support for students in care or are experiencing homelessness. This is similar to liaisons in the Illinois K-12 education system created under the McKinney-Vento Act of 2015.
Homeless or a Student in Care?
Enrolled students may qualify as homeless or as a student in care if they:
- Either lack or are at imminent risk of lacking a fixed, regular night-time residence.
- Have a parent or legal guardian that is unable or unwilling to provide shelter or care. (Not living in the physical custody of your parent/guardian)
- Share housing of others due to loss of housing, economic hardship.
- Are under or were under the care and legal custody of the Department of Children and Family Services, including youth for whom the Department has court-ordered legal responsibility, youth who aged out of care at age 18 or older, or youth formerly under care who have been adopted and were the subject of an adoption assistance agreement or who have been placed in private guardianship and were the subject of a subsidized guardianship agreement
- Live in motels, hotels, trailer parks, campgrounds, cars, parks, public spaces, abandoned buildings, bus or train stations or other similar settings due to lack of alternative adequate accommodations.
